Miniaturized energy self-sufficient components for reliable wireless communication in automation engineering

The efficiency of a production environment is strongly influenced by how well it is understood. Parameters have to be within a certain range and certain events have to be detected and reacted upon. For this purpose, there are many sensor nodes that constantly monitor a certain situation. Typically, the sensor nodes are linked via cables for data transmission and power supply. This may require long cables for spaced out nodes or may cause cables to break because of repeated bending. 

In the MIKOA project, we set out to remove cabling by:

• wireless communication
• energy self-sufficiency (energy harvesting from surroundings)

As a result, sensor nodes need less maintenance (no breaking wires, no changing of batteries), installation cost is reduces (no wiring required), and sensors can be deployed where conventional ones could not (in fluids, in tight spaces).

To achieve the goals, there are challenges to overcome:

• Wireless communication is unreliable (employ cooperation)
• Very limited energy (use energy efficient hardware, protocol design)
• Limited space (develop miniaturized components)

Project Partners

• Festo AG
• Siemens CT
• Zollner Elektronik AG
• enOcean GmbH
• Institut für Automation und Kommunikation Magdeburg e.V. (ifak)
• Helmut-Schmidt-Universität Hamburg
• Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft für angewandte Forschung e.V. (HSG-IMIT)
• Universität Paderborn